Two days after interviewing with the Raiders, Mike Martz pulled his name from consideration for Oakland's head coaching job and is now contemplating whether or not to join the Detroit Lions' staff.

Martz is talking to the Lions about becoming their offensive coordinator and will attempt to make a decision no later than Monday.

Earlier this month the Lions hired Rod Marinelli to be their new head coach. Marinelli filled the other coordinator job on Tuesday when former Jets defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson was hired in the same capacity.

Deciding who to hire as offensive coordinator will be a critical decision for the Lions, given the ongoing instability at the quarterback position.

Marinelli wanted to discuss the job with former Bills coach Mike Mularkey, but Mularkey accepted an offer from the Dolphins last Sunday to run their offense.

Steelers offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt remains the leading candidate to be the Raiders' new head coach. Although he's interested, there is no guarantee Whisenhunt will take the job; the Raiders cannot interview Whisenhunt until after the Super Bowl.

Martz led the Rams to four playoff berths and a Super Bowl championship in six seasons. He was fired the day after the season ended because of continuing disagreements with the front office.

Martz and the Rams reached a settlement believed to be about half the $3.25 million he was owed for the final year of a three-year contract.

Martz, who interviewed in New Orleans for the head coaching job that went to Sean Payton earlier this month, missed the last 11 games of the season with endocarditis, a bacterial infection of a heart valve. However, he said his health is not a concern and he's in no hurry to get another job.

-01-29-2006

majorram

Re: Martz new Lion's OC?

Wow it would be interesting to see what Martz would do with Harrington and those explosive recievers!!

steve:clanram:

-01-29-2006

STLRAMSFAN

Re: Martz new Lion's OC?

I think Detroit would be the smartest move Martz could make. They have a defensive minded coach who would allow Martz free reign with the offense and they have a ton of young potentially talented players on the offensive side of the ball. They have a very good TE in Pollard, which is better then any Martz has had to work with. They need to get better play out of their QB Harrington who is young but has four years experience now, I think Martz can help him develop. Only concern about Harrington is he has averaged over two sacks per start that should climb with Martz. His TD to INT ratio over the last two years was 31 TDs to 24 INTs that is not to bad considering what he had to work with. They also have a young RB in Kevin Jones and three former #1 pick WRs none of which have come close to their potential yet. With so many young players that have yet to reach their potential and a defensive minded HC Martz will have the chance to install his offense and develop the young talent. It would be hard for this team to not improve offensively no matter who the OC is unless his name was Marmie. These WRs were in their 1st, 2nd and 3rd seasons this year they will all get better and will excel in a pass oriented offense like Martz. Not to mention they have a very good veteran TE (Pollard) to help them out in the passing game Pollard led the team in receptions this year and was second in receiving yards.

There has been talk about Detroit giving up on Charles Rogers and Harrington. I don't see that happening with Martz but if they did I would not mind seeing them as backups on the Rams. I don't think we could ever afford them as backups but it would be nice to have a young QB with 4 years experience behind Bulger and Rogers has struggled in his first three years but he has only started 9 games he would be younger then our top three WRs.